{"doi":"10.3389/fpsyt.2021.684556","title":"An Exploratory Analysis of the Association Between Catechol-O-Methyltransferase and Response to a Randomized Open-Label Placebo Treatment for Cancer-Related Fatigue","abstract":"Previous studies have identified catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), as a key enzyme influencing sympathetic function. Although the COMT SNP rs4680 and rs4818, are well-studied, little is known about their influence on cancer-related fatigue (CrF) and placebo response. In this study, we examined whether genetic variation in COMT , at the functional SNP rs4680 and linked rs4818, influenced open-label placebo (OLP) responses found in cancer survivors reporting moderate to severe CrF. We randomized cancer survivors ( N = 74) reporting moderate-to-severe CrF to receive OLP or to treatment-as-usual (TAU) and assessed if rs4680 and rs4818 were associated with changes in fatigue severity and fatigue-distressed quality of life. At the end of the initial 21 days, the treatments were crossed over and both groups were re-assessed. Participants with the rs4680 high-activity G-allele (G/G or G/A) or rs4818 C/G genotypes reported significant decreases in fatigue severity and improvements in fatigue-distressed quality of life. The COMT rs4818 findings replicated findings in a similar study of OLP in cancer fatigue. Clinical Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov , identifier: NCT02522988.","journal":"Frontiers in Psychiatry","year":2021,"id":184466,"datarank":0.4403635671239077,"base_score":2.4849066497880004,"endowment":2.4849066497880004,"self_citation_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citation_network_contribution":0.06762756965570757,"self_endowment_contribution":0.37273599746820013,"citer_contribution":0.06762756965570757,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":8,"citers_with_citation_signal":3,"citers_with_endowment":3,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9517,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT02522988"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":454549,"name":"Navneet Kaur Baidwan","orcid":"0000-0002-3923-6606","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":381111,"name":"Kathryn T. Hall","orcid":"0000-0002-3115-7372","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":289037,"name":"Ted J. Kaptchuk","orcid":"0000-0002-2253-1940","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":71623,"name":"Kevin R. Fontaine","orcid":"0000-0002-2807-6440","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":454551,"name":"Tapan Mehta","orcid":"0000-0002-2016-2344","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":739673,"name":"Teri Hoenemeyer","orcid":"0000-0002-6763-728X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:30.970730Z","pmid":"34267689","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}